On the 6th of June, Arnhem-based Free Your Mind Festival is celebrating its 12th edition, placing them among some of the longest-running dance festivals of the Netherlands. The first names that were confirmed include some serious headliners, including Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Art Department, Route94 and Butch. One of the native acts to appear is Franky Rizardo, a name that might already sound familiar to you, but who, in the last few years, has made a drastic change of sound in his DJ career.

Having established himself as one of the biggest draws in Holland’s house music circuit with a style that works as well on big stages as it does in sweaty clubs, he’s now rapidly expanding his horizons across the world. Releases on OFF, Defected and Spinnin’ demonstrate an increasingly strong production career, while his Flow radio show and events are fast becoming a major part of the house music landscape across the world.

“I think that playing a lot of different stages has taught me how to work with a large diversity of crowd, rather than doing one trick every show. I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. I just want to arrive and do my set specifically for that night.” It’s a funny thing that he’s as at home playing with long-time friend Hardwell one day, and playing alongside house music legends like MK and Dennis Ferrer the next.

Franky’s decision to go for another sound than he used to push, led him to host the first contemporary deep house radio slot on SLAM!FM, in between colleagues Sander van Doorn and Nicky Romero’s shows. His show didn’t go without success, and led Rizardo to his own stage on Dance Valley, and Free Your Mind Festival.

After releasing his successful OFF Recordings EP, which hit the Deep House Top 25, Rizardo is currently working on a string of new releases, including four new tracks and 6 new remixes for his Deep Down & Defected compilation. Here’s an example of one of his strongest grooves yet, the remix of ‘Freak’.